The Water-Witch or, the Skimmer of the Seas eBook

“Still deeper and deeper in thy effrontery—­and
what if this be true?”

“Sir, a ship is a seaman’s mistress—­nay,
when fairly under a pennant, with a war declared,
he may be said to be wedded to her, lawfully or not.
He becomes ’bone of her bone, and flesh of her
flesh, until death doth them part.’ To
such a long compact, there should be liberty of choice.
Has not your mariner a taste, as well as your lover?
The harpings and counter of his ship are the waist
and shoulders; the rigging, the ringlets; the cut
and fit of the sails, the fashion of the millinery;
the guns are always called the teeth, and her paint
is the blush and bloom! Here is matter of choice,
Sir; and, without leave to make it, I must wish your
Honor a happy cruise, and the Queen a better servitor.”

“Why, Master Tiller,” cried Ludlow, laughing,
“you trust too much to these stunted oaks, if
you believe it exceeds my power to hunt you out of
their cover, at pleasure. But I take you at your
word. The Coquette shall receive you on these
conditions, and with the confidence that a first-rate
city belle would enter a country ball-room.”

“I follow in your Honor’s wake, without
more words,” returned he of the sash, for the
first time respectfully raising his canvas cap to the
young commander. “Though not actually married,
consider me a man betrothed.”

It is not necessary to pursue the discourse between
the two seamen any further. It was maintained,
and with sufficient freedom on the part of the inferior,
until they reached the shore, and came in full view
of the pennant of the Queen; when, with the tact of
an old man-of-war’s man, he threw into his manner
all the respect that was usually required by the difference
of rank.

Half an hour later, the Coquette was rolling at a
single anchor, as the puffs of wind came off the hills
on her three top-sails; and shortly after, she was
seen standing through the Narrows, with a fresh southwesterly
breeze. In all these movements, there was nothing
to attract attention. Notwithstanding the sarcastic
allusions of Alderman Van Beverout, the cruiser was
far from being idle; and her passage outward was a
circumstance of so common occurrence, that it excited
no comment among the boatmen of the bay, and the coasters,
who alone witnessed her departure.

Chapter VII.

“—­I am no
pilot; yet, wert thou as far
As that vast shore wash’d
with the furthest sea,
I would adventure for such
merchandise.”

Romeo And Juliet.

A happy mixture of land and water, seen by a bright
moon, and beneath the sky of the fortieth degree of
latitude, cannot fail to make a pleasing picture.
Such was the landscape which the reader must now endeavor
to present to his mind.